Childhood Fancies
by Jennifer Darknight
Summary: The Course of True Love never did Run Smooth, though if it did, it might have made these two live less in tragedy and more in unity. A Ramza x Teta drabble collection, spanning the canon and beyond. Rated M in case of later mature content.
1. Firsts

**Firsts**

Nobody had quite known what the sickness was. The 'Black Plague', the chemists were calling it; bodies had shivered, grown pestules along their skin and people were dropping like flies without a cure in sight. Children were left orphaned, adults were left without children, and entire fiefs were wiped out.

The Hyral family was no stranger to this, as brother and sister had left their ancestral home, sent instead to live with the noble Beoulve children, who they had seen often enough but rarely met in person.

It was expected that Teta Hyral would have moved towards the Lady Alma first, but the little girl didn't move far from her usual spot, huddled behind her big brother and clutching his shirt with her eyes wide and trembling with fear.

"Now, now. Come out behind there, would you? It won't do for a lady to hold onto her brother so."

...That was what that hellion of a governess had said, that pudgy face coming closer to the two, which made Teta hide even deeper in her fright.

...

But it was he who had driven her from her hiding place. It was that soft, naïve, but still authorative tone that pierced her ears and her heart, causing that little brunette face to peek out from behind Delita's back and finally, finally, step out into the sunlight.

_"It's okay, you can come out. We're not going to hurt you!"_

Though somehow, everyone had always assumed that Ramza had spoken to Delita first that day.


	2. Equality

**Equality**

All of her life, Teta Hyral was only too aware of her class and position. The noblewoman's clothes draped upon her could only be temporary, and the schooling she received was only a formality, as was her brother's in that bustling, yet cold and faraway city.

But sometimes, sometimes...when she'd look into Ramza Beoulve's eyes when he'd smile at her, she would forget her situation and truly believe that the two of them could possibly be.


	3. Faith

**Faith**

Even when everyone prayed in the church, Teta could never bring herself to pray along with them. Even when her Brother made a big show of his own participation (though she was certain he was making fun of the priest under his breath), her hands would simply clasp together, eyes tightly closed.

What good was it going to do to pray? Praying wouldn't bring her parents back. Praying wasn't going to get her out of this situation, or allow her an easier life or a simpler existence. It wouldn't give the poor food, the less fortunate housing, or the children of those lost in the plague homes. If anything it was a way to pass the time...just some way that the Nobles could explain their existence, their riches, over the others.

She wasn't going to pray. She didn't want to pray. She didn't want to be like _them_...

But...

---

_"Brother! Ramza! What happened?!" _

_Two boys lying on the ground, broken branches sitting around them. Ramza was on the right, Delita on the left, and laughter was ringing in the air; it certainly was a switch from the cracking branches and the loud male screams she had heard seconds ago. _

_"Hahaha, don't worry Teta. We're all right! See?" _

_"What I see," Twelve-year-old Teta snorted, "Is a big brother who almost got himself killed. What if you two had--" _

_"But it's fine, really..." Ramza smiled that usual disarming smile, scratching his head. "I'm sorry that we frightened you—but it was just a scare, really. It wasn't a far enough drop to cause any damage." _

_"It isn't nothing! You two could have really gotten hurt!"_

_---_

...That was the first time she had ever had the urge to just sit down, fall on her knees, and thank God that her stupid brother and his equally stupid friend had managed to live another day.


	4. The Same

**The Same**

"Would endeavor bring me an army?!" Delita shouted, "If I could, I'd save Teta myself. But I can't...and still you speak of 'endeavor' like you know what it's like to endeavor anything?!"

Ramza stood still a moment, allowing the sound of the words to fall against his ears. Such anger, such helplessness...

--

_"Teta, I'm sure that you'll be able to do fine. All you have to do is--"_

_"...Is what? 'Work hard'? 'Don't let them bother you'?" Her words were bitter, quiet. Her brown hair hung over her face, hand clenching into a single fist. "Ramza, you don't understand what it's like, and I don't expect you to...but don't you dare try to tell me how to take care of my own problems." _

_--_

"Delita..." Ramza paused a moment. What was he trying to say?

If Delita had acknowledged him, Ramza couldn't tell. The man had already hung his head, body slumped against the stone...

"You and Teta..." Ramza whispered, "You're both a lot more alike than you think."


	5. Goodbyes

**Goodbyes**

He was around a year old when his sister was born, held in the arms of their mother with a definite glimmer of love in her eyes. Even though he was still a baby at the time, watching her, it must have been that moment when he had sworn to protect her, at any cost.

He was around fourteen when Balbanes Beoulve's wish to send Ramza and himself to Gariland academy had come to fruition.

She was his little sister. The girl he'd been watching over since they were babies.

But why did he have the feeling that Ramza and his sister had already said their goodbyes, long before she had even come to meet them out at the gate that morning?

And why did he have the strangest feeling that there was something behind their gazes that he didn't like, and _wouldn't_ like, far into the future?


	6. Library

**Library**

Even in the Aristocratic School, Teta's favorite place was always the library. Some assumed that it was because she enjoyed the scent of the books, and the quiet of the walls. The girls were too busy to spend their time crammed with books, not when they had dances to memorize or dinner planning classes to attend...

No matter how many girls poked fun at her for staying there rather than doing what it was that normal noble girls did (_What did they do? _Teta often wondered), she went in there, day after day after day...

She'd never admit that the real reason was because she wanted to have something to talk about with him when she saw him again.


	7. Truth

**Truth**

**--  
**

"...Teta puts on a brave face, but the truth is not as honeyed as her words."

"...What do you mean?"

"She has a hard time at school, for the others tease her for being a low-born."

--

Ramza would never know it, but Alma's words shortly after had been hurried, spur-of-the-moment, far from what she had wished for herself to say.

"Forgive me, I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sure you have worries enough of your own. Teta will be all right. I'm here to look after her."

"...Then there is naught to worry about."

She simply could not bear to see that emotion cloud in his eyes, noticed long ago but understood far too late; but she knew that there was little she could do to chase it away. Even the promise of standing by the girl in her worst hour was not enough to curb it, nor was it enough to overshadow her err.

All Alma could do was berate herself for speaking those words, and wish that she had never said them at all.


	8. Prince and Pauper

**The Prince that would Become a Pauper**

The young girls had always been told the story about a young prince who switched places with a lowly pauper, only for the two of them to realize their places and switch back to who they were, miserable that they had wanted more than what they had in the first place (or less, in the Prince's case).

But what was the moral of the story where the Pauper fell in love with the Prince?

And she wanted the Prince to become a Pauper, not be a Pauper who became a Princess?


	9. Reversal

**Reversal**

**Note: **This takes place in an AU of my own creation, in which, after the events of the Ultima battle, Ramza was stuck in a time loop, his soul returned to his young body with memories intact. In hopes of making things right, he had planned and prepared for Teta to not be captured, and for her to live past Fort Zeakden unscathed. Unfortunately, things were going as before...but in an attempt to save his sister's life, Delita climbed towards the fort to her, and ended up being the one slain by Algus's stray arrow.

* * *

"Delita! _Delita_!"

Tears stung Ramza's eyes, fists clenched by his side, eyes glaring murder at the man from across the battlefield, that smirking face of the man who had, with his own hands, wrought upon the death of he who had not deserved it. Brother lied on his back on the blood-soaked snow as the sister sobbed over him, the red stuff staining her skin and dress even as she used every ounce of meagre magical knowledge to bring him back to life, to bring him back to consciousness.

This wasn't supposed to _happen_.

"See there what it means for one to know his place." Algus's tone was sharp, venom falling from his tongue. "Commoners will always be commoners, and will always share the same fate."

This wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't supposed to end this way...

Ramza's eyes became steel, hand touching the hilt of the familiar blade on his side, feet planted in the ground.

This was not how it was to be. He was supposed to have set it _right_...all that planning, years and years of planning...nobody was supposed to die. All were supposed to get out of this _alive_...

How cruel the Fates could be.

"Still thy tongue, lest I cut it from your throat."

He had lost a lover before, but kept his brother. But with his dream to save both caused his brother to be lost, but his lover still remaining.

"You don't understand, do you? What is it going to take in order to get you to see the truth? He's not like you—she's not like you! There's no reason for you to—"

He would die. On Teta's tears—the tears she was now able to cry, though why, why did Delita—and on the body of his fallen brother, Algus Sadalfas would _die_.

With a tear-choked battle cry, Ramza leapt from his position towards him, sword at the ready.

Just like before.

And just like before, in that terrible, empty time...the bastard would fall for his crimes.


End file.
